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Crater Lake (Klamath: Giiwas)[2] is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a 2,148-foot-deep (655 m) caldera[3] that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago[4] by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. No rivers flow into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years.[citation needed] With a depth of 1,949 feet (594 m),[5] the lake is the deepest in the United States. In the world, it ranks ninth for maximum depth, as well as third for mean (average) depth.[6]

Crater Lake features two small islands. Wizard Island, located near the western shore of the lake, is a cinder cone about 316 acres (128 ha) in size. Phantom Ship, a natural rock pillar, is located near the southern shore.

Since 2002, one of Oregon's regular-issue license-plate designs has featured Crater Lake[7] and a one-time plate surcharge is used to support the operation of Crater Lake National Park.[8] The commemorative Oregon State Quarter, which was released by the United States Mint in 2005, features an image of Crater Lake on its reverse.[9]

The lake and surrounding park areas offer many recreational activities, including hiking, biking, snowshoeing, fishing, and cross-country skiing, and during the summer, campgrounds and lodges at Crater Lake are open to visitors.
Crater Lake is in Klamath County, around 60 miles (97 km) northwest of the county seat of Klamath Falls, and about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of the city of Medford.[10]

A Native American connection with this area has been traced back to before the eruption of Mount Mazama. Archaeologists have found sandals and other artifacts buried under layers of ash, dust, and pumice that antedate the eruption roughly 7,700 years ago.[11] Crater Lake remains significant to the Klamath tribes today.[12] The Klamath name for the lake is Giiwas.[11]

In June 1853, Isaac Skeeter, John Wesley Hillman, and another man were the first non-Native Americans to report sighting the lake, while on a mining trip; Skeeter named it "Deep Blue Lake," inspired by Hillman's description of the site. The lake was renamed at least three times, as Blue Lake, Lake Majesty, and finally Crater Lake.[13][14]

The lake is 5 by 6 miles (8.0 by 9.7 km) across, with a caldera rim ranging in elevation from 7,000 to 8,000 feet (2,100 to 2,400 m) and an average lake depth of 1,148 feet (350 m). The lake's maximum depth has been measured at 1,949 feet (594 m),[3][5][15][16] which fluctuates slightly as the weather changes.[3] On the basis of maximum depth, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States, the second-deepest in North America (after Great Slave Lake in Canada), and the ninth-deepest lake in the world.[17] Crater Lake is often cited as the seventh-deepest lake in the world, but this ranking excludes Lake Vostok in Antarctica,[18][19] which is beneath about 13,000 feet (4,000 m) of ice, and the recent depth soundings of O'Higgins/San Martín Lake, which is along the border of Chile and Argentina.[20]

When considering the mean, or average depth of lakes, Crater Lake becomes the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the third-deepest in the world. Crater Lake Institute Director and limnologist Owen Hoffman states that "Crater Lake is the deepest, when compared on the basis of average depth among lakes whose basins are entirely above sea level. The average depths of Lakes Baikal and Tanganyika are deeper than Crater Lake; however, both have basins that extend below sea level."[19][21]
Mount Mazama, part of the Cascade Range volcanic arc, was built up mostly of andesite, dacite, and rhyodacite over a period of at least 400,000 years. The caldera was created in a massive volcanic eruption between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago that led to the subsidence of Mount Mazama. About 12 cubic miles (50 km3) of rhyodacite was erupted in this event. Since that time, all eruptions on Mazama have been confined to the caldera.[22][23]

Lava eruptions later created a central platform, Wizard Island, Merriam Cone, and other, smaller volcanic features, including a rhyodacite dome that was eventually created atop the central platform. Sediments and landslide debris also covered the caldera floor.[24]

Eventually, the caldera cooled, allowing rain and snow to accumulate and form a lake. Landslides from the caldera rim thereafter formed debris fans and turbidite sediments on the lake bed. Fumaroles and hot springs remained common and active during this period. Also after some time, the slopes of the lake's caldera rim more or less stabilized, streams restored a radial drainage pattern on the mountain, and dense forests began to revegetate the barren landscape. It is estimated that about 720 years was required to fill the lake to its present depth of 1,949

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